At a golf practice area, it is desirable to provide a golfer with a large supply of golf balls for use during a practice session. Such a supply of golf balls may be provided as a basket of balls carried by the golfer to the practice area. The golf balls must typically be removed by hand from the basket and moved to the practice area, which is time consuming and cumbersome for the golfer, requiring him/her to repeatedly bend over to remove golf balls from the basket. Alternatively, the entire basket of balls may be emptied into the practice area, resulting in a cluttered practice area, a falling/tripping hazard for the golfer, and significant numbers of balls rolling out of the immediate practice area which must be retrieved by the golfer or collected by golf facility personnel. The large number of balls required for a protracted practice session may also be too heavy (100 golf balls weigh about 10 pounds) to be readily carried to the practice area, necessitating repeated trips obtain more balls for continued practice.
Other previous means for providing a supply of golf balls for a practice session have employed a pyramidal stack of golf balls. Square pyramidal stacks of golf balls are provided by methods and apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 5,551,832 to Kelly; U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,574 to Thomsen; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,895 to Thomsen. Such pyramidal stacks offer the advantage over baskets of ease of dispensing golf balls for use. One or more golf balls may be knocked off of the stack by the head (i.e., lower end) of a golf club wielded by the golfer, without the need for the golfer to bend over to remove the balls by hand. Pyramidal stacks may also be considered an attractive way of presenting a supply of golf balls for use. Stacking the balls in a pyramid, however, may be quite labor intensive unless some means is used to quickly and readily create the stack. The Kelly patent discloses an open-bottomed square pyramidal shell which may be inverted and golf balls to be stacked poured in. When the pyramidal shell is filled, a square tray is placed over the open bottom and the entire assembly of shell, tray, and balls is turned upright. The tray holds the square pyramidal stack of golf balls after removal of the pyramidal shell. A drawback of this system is the fact that the stack (in the shell) must be held while the shell is being filled, and the assembly of shell, balls, and tray must be turned upright manually. This necessarily limits the weight (and therefore size) of a golf ball stack that may be practically achieved by this stacking system. The limit is typically 91 golf balls (a six layer stack, 6.times.6 balls on the bottom layer, 9.7 pounds) or 140 golf balls (a seven layer stack, 7.times.7 balls on the bottom layer, 14.9 pounds). A larger stack of balls, allowing a more protracted practice session and requiring less frequent restacking by golf facility personnel, is desirable. In particular, it is desirable to produce a stack with sufficiently many balls to sustain a two hour practice session at a typical rate of three balls used per minute (at least 360 balls, weighing 38.2 pounds).
The Thomsen patents disclose a golf ball tray having a square array of spherical depressions for receiving golf balls. A hopper with an open, square pyramidal lower end is placed over the tray, and golf balls are poured into a top opening of the hopper. As golf balls fill the spherical depressions, the square base layer, or array, of the pyramidal stack is formed. As more balls are poured in, subsequent layers are formed until the pyramidal stack is complete. Larger stacks of golf balls may be produced in this way, and the Thomsen patents disclose stacks as large as 204 golf balls (an eight layer stack, 8.times.8 balls on the bottom layer). It has been noted subsequently, however, that achieving complete filling of the base layer without excessive user manipulation and/or intervention is problematic. It is therefore desirable to provide apparatus and methods for producing a pyramidal stack of golf balls larger than previously disclosed which may be filled with little or no user manipulation and/or intervention, particularly when filling the base layer of the stack. The spherical depressions also make dispensing golf balls from the base layer with the head of a golf club difficult. It is therefore desirable to provide apparatus and methods for stacking golf balls in a pyramidal stack for use during golf practice sessions in which all of the golf balls in the stack, including the base layer, may be easily dispensed from the stack by a golfer using the head of a golf club.